It is an arduous undertaking, during the lockdown, to make information. The ability to directly access data is missing. It is the thought, in summary, of Roberto Saviano , in an interview released to Ansa.it in which he comments on the Magazine dedicated to the 30 Italian journalists killed for mafia and terrorism in Italy, and also in the world where they were to document international crises.
"The concept of press freedom is always important - says the writer -. It is probably more important when things are going well or seem to be going well because it is in peacetime that we build the paraphernalia to face the time of crisis. With the pandemic collapsed everything that was already malfunctioning before, everything that was already suffering.Freedom of the press also affects information to which we have or do not have access. On March 17, 2020, the Cura Italia decree-law established that public administrations were required to suspend responses to requests for documentary access that were not of an 'indifferent and urgent' nature. Although it was a temporary suspension and although there was an objective reduction of personnel due to the pandemic, it was a difficult task for those who had to inform about the spread of the virus. Nobody harmed the freedom of the press, but there was no possibility of direct access to
"The concept of press freedom is always important - says the writer -. It is probably more important when things are going well or seem to be going well because it is in peacetime that we build the paraphernalia to face the time of crisis. With the pandemic has collapsed everything that was already malfunctioning before, everything that was already suffering . Press freedom, then, also concerns the information to which we have or do not have access. On March 17, 2020, the decree-law Cura Italy established that public administrations were required to suspend responses to requests for documentary access that were not of an 'indifferent and urgent' nature. Although this was a temporary suspension and although there was an objective reduction in staff due to the pandemic, for those who had to make information about the spread of the virus was a difficult task. Nobody harmed the freedom of the press, but there was no possibility of direct access to the d ati ".
To the question "Of the thirty Italian journalists killed, is there a story that has struck you for some reason?" Saviano replies: " These are all dramatic events for those who have lost their lives and for us who remain, because they clearly demonstrate that the writer is alone. He is alone and often considered a fool." Who made him do it ", this is the the first consideration that most people make when the writer is in difficulty. "If he had done his own business nothing would have happened to him", often these words are spoken even in the face of death. It is atrocious, but it is so. Then there are those who queue to chatter: "They killed him because he was the lover of the boss's wife", "They killed him because he went after the girls." This mud destroys everything because it prevents you from becoming aware of a detail that is fundamental: telling what happens is not easy, telling it with rigor is very difficult and telling what does not work does not make you nice to anyone. The protagonists of your story detest and detest you all the others because you impose an awareness and therefore a choice. I have always felt very close to Giancarlo Siani, for many reasons. Because he was killed for making exact assumptions and for making them at a very young age, at 26, the same age as I was when I ended up under escort. I have always felt close to Antonio Russo, correspondent in Georgia of Radio Radicale, killed in 2000 for discovering how far the Russian military had gone in perpetrating violence and torture against the Chechen population, even of Chechen children ".
Finally, to the question "What would you recommend to a young man to always combine civil commitment with the profession of journalist?" the writer says: " Study. I would tell him this and not as an empty exhortation, but because to write you have to know much more than what you write. You have to study for hours, read what you need to know, do research and then cut, reduce essentials. Write only what goes straight to the point, but straight to the point you get there if you do not miss any steps. do not use writing to attack enemies, i would tell him, and even to make friends, you do not. Scontenterai always someone and then try, as much as you can, to use your words like a beacon, try to illuminate just where you don't want to look and, where everything is more intricate, risk making assumptions. Dig, don't limit yourself to the surface , but always dig and tell what you find. Who wants to understand you will be grateful. Write for everyone, not just for those who think like you, and write to convince ".
(martino.iannone@ansa.it)
